The Source
by Banshi13
Summary: Her eyes, which had been wide and open, if some what depressed looking, now mirrored her fathers, turning cold, narrow, and suspicious'. John Sheppard is forced to relive a haunting experience once again for a young woman to find closure. R&R!


Dressed in his uniform, John Sheppard made his way through the halls of the SGC, nervously navigating his way through people and equipment. It was a slow day apparently. According to the rather brief briefing he'd received when he'd arrived on the Daedalus, there were only two teams off world, SG teams 4 and 9, and as he understood, it, SG-1 was on leave for about a week. Which meant that there probably wouldn't be any off world problems at least for that long. Sheppard might have been late to the game, but he'd been given the high lights of the SGC, and anyone that knew anything about that place knew that when SG-1 went off world, bets started being placed almost immediately to see what kind of situation that particular team would get into next.

John almost wished that the reason he'd returned to Earth was because the SGC needed another man to fill a spot on the team. Hell, at this point, he would have been happy with helping scientists figure out math problems. But alas, neither was the reason he was visiting. He was here on business. Business that he'd much rather leave to other military personnel.

As he wound his way to the V.I.P. corridor, he straightened his tie and checked his uniform for lent or any other abnormal qualities. Deeming himself fit for his meeting, he stopped outside one of the doors, and, nodding at the security guard stationed there, knocked softly, and somewhat hesitantly. He could hear shuffling inside and a soft, feminine, 'just a moment', before the door finally opened and John stood looking at his appointment. For a moment, the two just looked at each other, never having laid eyes upon one another, or even spoken to each other. Hell, before Atlantis, neither of them had known that the other had existed, and why would they? It was pure fate that had put them in this situation. John cleared his throat and took off his cap, giving her a snappy salute. "Major John Sheppard Ma'am," he introduced, not bothering to give her his signature 'charm and disarm' smile. He wasn't here for pleasantries after all.

The young woman he was looking at was just as stern and nervous as he felt. He had a feeling that, like her father had, she was able to hide feelings of fear and anxiety to the normal human eye. But John was military, and if one military officer could tell anything about one of their own, it was what they were really feeling inside, and when they were trying to hide it.

He had to admit that the woman wasn't anything he'd expected her to be. As she continued to size him up, he did the same with her, as ungentlemanly as that may have seemed. She was of medium height, about 5'5'', 5'6'' or so. Her eyes were the cool blue/grey of her fathers, but more open, not quite as narrow. Light wisps of honey framed a strong, broad face, and at the moment, though he was sure she had a beautiful smile, her lips were pursed in a hesitant line, not quite knowing where to proceed.

"Carol Sumner," she finally responded, opening the door wider for him to enter, which he did. He took a look around the room. It was obvious that she'd just gotten there and wasn't planning to stay long. A small over night bag sat on the dresser against the wall. The bed was still made, there wasn't even a hint of a wrinkle in it, so John imagined that she'd either been pacing the room or not in it much, though he could hardly imagine where she could have been, considering that her clearance wasn't high enough to go to the lower levels of the base.

"I guess you're pretty tired after your trip," the woman was saying as John turned back toward her. He shook his head in response. "It may have been three weeks, but we don't sleep on boards. I actually got a lot more sleep on the shit than Atlantis," he tried to smile but didn't quite find the urge to do so, "I understand you've been given limited clearance?" Carol nodded.

"Yes. After I heard about what happened, I wrote to my father's C.O. He sent me a letter back telling me what 'happened'. I didn't believe a word of it..." she sat on the bed, smoothing her pants suit as she did so, "so I sent the President a letter. When I didn't hear back from him, I tried to get in touch with Everett. He couldn't tell me anything, but he directed me to General Jack O'Neill." She looked around the suite, shaking her head. "I thought my father was on some kind of special op's mission that was top secret...turns out the government has known about alien life for the past ten years, and hasn't bothered to tell anyone." She laughed bitterly. "Definitely seems like a military run operation to me."

"Yea..." John shifted his weight, not quite knowing how to start the discussion that this woman had wanted to have with him. "If I may ask ma'am, would you recite the level of clearance you've been given to me?"

Carol's eyes, which had been wide and open, if some what depressed looking, now mirrored her fathers, turning cold, narrow, and suspicious. None the less, she complied with his request. "I know about the Stargate. I know we've been traveling to other planets for the past ten years. I know that recently, Atlantis was discovered, and that my father was the military commander for that expedition. Was being the operative word..." her eyes flashed as she cleared her throat and looked way. John continued to look at her, his gaze never breaking. "I've been granted permission by General O'Neill and the President of the United States to hear what happened on a Wraith ship involving my father. As far as anything before or after that, I have no clearance. I'm not interested in it. I've seen it on paper, but I want to know why my father died, and I want to know why he was shot by his 2IC." She finished and turned her head up at Major Sheppard. When he didn't reply, she cleared her throat.

"Whenever you want to begin..."

John took a deep breath, remained standing, and retold the story. It wasn't bad enough that he had to relive it every night in his dreams, but now he had to explain it to the guys daughter as well. He told her how the wraith had captured Sumner and his team, how the Wraith had sped away with them and members of the Athosian culture. He explained to her how he and Ford had made their way onboard the ship, and how they'd found the Athosian's and the marine team, minus her father. His story continued, to going after Sumner on his own, trying to get him back, seeing him age rapidly at the hands of a vampiric like enemy, and his eyes, silently asking Sheppard to shoot him before he unknowingly gave anything away. John stopped the story there, not going into what happened after ward. As far as he was concerned, the woman didn't need to know any more about the Wraith than she did already. And what she knew as all she needed to know. They'd killed her father after all, what more did she need?

"He asked you to shoot?" Carol suddenly asked, looking at John as though he'd lost his mind. John shook his head. "No ma'am, not with his voice. But when you've been in a combat situation as many times as I have...as many times as your father has...when you've been in a combat zone and you are in the hands of the enemy...when you realize that there's no way you're getting out alive...you recognize the look in a soldier's eyes when he knows his time has come. Instead of your father being killed by the enemy in a slow and painful way, I gave him the easiest death I could."

"So you shot him."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Where?"

John really wanted to ask the woman 'where do you think?', but swallowed and answered the question. "In the chest. Direct hit to the heart ma'am."

"Okay, I'm 29 year's old. The ma'am is getting old, not me..." she sighed and wiped her eyes from the tired moisture gathering there. "You can call me Carol." She stood up and crossed her arms, her eyes glued to the floor. "These...these wraith..." she began, "how...you said they were vampiric?"

John nodded.

"How so? I mean, did they latch onto my father's neck with their mouths and start sucking like Lestat or..." she waved her hands in the air as to indicate some other fashion of their action.

"Um...no, not exactly," John looked down at his hand and opened it, palm up. "Their hands are able to literally suck the strength...the life out of someone, and also the blood. The victim begins to age almost immediately. Human's are their food...they have what they call 'feeding grounds' of them...we're like cattle, I suppose." He looked at her intently, watching her closely. She was quite lovely, he had to admit, and he silently hoped that where ever her father was at the moment, he couldn't read his mind. Sumner had never been thrilled with Sheppard to begin with. The last thing John needed was the Colonel's ghost to come haunt him because the major thought his daughter was hot. As beautiful as she was though, there was a hard exterior to her face. Growing up in a marine family must not have been easy for the girl. And her father was career military, one of the best in the field and highly honored in the military and the government.

"Look, I know you've lost your father...I know I'm the cause of that. I'm not asking for your forgiveness because believe me...I'm not sure I've forgiven myself yet. All I can ask you to do is try to understand as much as you can why it happened. I am sorry...that's a little late, I know, but...I am. If I could have saved him, I would have given my life to do that." 'I almost did', he thought to himself as he looked at Carol.

"Truth be told, your dad wasn't wild about me," John spat out, and almost immediately he wished he could take it back. The last thing he need was for Carol Sumner to think that there was alternate motive to Sheppard killing her father. Surprisingly enough though, Carol laughed out loud, clasping her hands together in front of her and shaking her head.

"Major Sheppard, I will guarantee you that you were neither the first, nor the last solider my father had a problem with." And she actually smiled at him then, a bright smile that John was sure could light Atlantis for another 10,000 years, no problem. Who needed a ZPM when she had that wattage? John's mouth tugged at smile until she sobered up. He looked at her, as though waiting her judgement, her verdict, his punishment.

"I guess I just needed to hear it from the source," she murmured, "my father was the consummate military man. Defeat at the hands of the enemy was simply unacceptable in any situation." Her words took her to stand in front of John. She looked up at him, impossibly intense eyes searching his own. "I know that you're away from your rightful place to do this, Major. I know that Atlantis is probably missing your company, and I know that you're the military commander there now...and I just want to thank you for coming all this way to tell me that."

"Ah...don't worry bout it," John finally gave her his 'charm and disarm' grin, "I mean, what's a couple of galaxies, you know? Hop, skip, and a jump away, really." He was warmed inside when Carol laughed lightly. "You know, I will say this," she looked up at him, "I think that at the end of it all, my father would have been proud to command you. It took a lot of courage and selflessness to do what you did. My father always admired and tried to be both."

"Really, I never noticed," John smirked. The two stood where they were for a moment, not really certain where to go from there, until Carol stepped away from him and toward the door. "Well, I'm sure you've got some pretty important things to do while you're here. But thanks for coming to meet me. You have no idea how much it means to hear it rather than read it."

"You're welcome," John answered softly, walking to the door. She opened it for him, and he was going out the door when he paused and looked back at her. "You know, actually, I have nothing to do at the moment. I mean, at least not until tomorrow when I go through the equipment manifest for Atlantis and meet with the C.O. of the base...plus some other things, but uh...as of right now, I've got nothing on my schedule, and I haven't eaten yet. So why don't you come with me to the commissary and tell me about dear old dad?"

"Heh...um, food...I guess I haven't been eating much lately myself," Carol exclaimed, her stomach suddenly coming to life with the prospect of being fed soon, "I'd like that, a lot, Major."

"Carol?"

"Yes?" she walked up, passing through the door and stood in the hallway, looking at him.

"Call me John." To the security guard, he said, "Miss. Sumner and myself are going to head down to the commissary for a little while, if you'd care to follow us." With a sharp nod and giving the two a bit of space, the S.F. followed the Major and the Colonels daughter down the hall, listening already to stories being told about the late Colonel Marshall Sumner.

Fini


End file.
